Memes: The New Marketing Tool

29Jul

Memes: The New Marketing Tool

At this point, almost everyone with a pair of eyes knows what a meme is. A good meme consists of a great picture, a funny or smart relatable caption, and has the potential of becoming viral. Now that memes are wildly popular and extremely easy to make (memecrunch, imgur, quickmeme, etc.), different businesses are using them to promote their products. However, just because your business makes memes, doesn’t mean they’ll be effective. Consider the following to ensure your next meme serves its purpose: be entertaining while positively promoting your business.

Determining the meme’s tone.

What is your company’s brand? A luxury brand? A sporting goods brand? A teenage clothing brand? Whatever your products are, determine who your target demographic is online. Depending on who your audience is, your overall tone of your meme will have to cater to them. For example, if wealthy people who live a life of leisure are looking at your company’s Facebook, they may not appreciate a funny meme about getting up early to make it to their restaurant shift on time—or conversely, a teenager wouldn’t appreciate a meme about the difficulties of shopping for yachts. As long as you know your audience, your meme should be relatable enough, and make sense.

Choosing the right image.

Just because you like a particular image, doesn’t necessarily mean it will fly. You can use a picture that you’ve taken yourself, or search for one online. You can search for popular memes online to get an idea of what seems to work and what doesn’t. Make sure the image ties into your brand somehow, so that it doesn’t seem too disjointed. Since the best memes are typically funny, witty, or cheeky; it’s important to choose an image that can support that.

Coming up with clever text.

If you’re not the most natural wordsmith, you’ll need some help coming up with something funny/witty/memorable. If you have a case of writer’s block, consider referring to the following: popular movie quotes, inspirational quotes, or classic puns. If you just need a good starting point, you can build off of other popular meme phrases like “That moment when…” or a basic theme like Grumpy Cat.

If you do decide to make a meme for your business’s website or social media accounts, be sure to do your research to avoid it working against you. Referencing the wrong thing could prove offensive to consumers, and can seriously backfire. If you’re not sure about what is trending meme-wise, check out knowyourmeme.com to be safe.